Ireland’s holding a general election at the end of the month and today I’m out on the campaign trail with Mary L McDonald leader of shin vaine Ireland’s main opposition party and until really recently polls were suggesting that shim faine would be able to form a government in the Republic for the first time ever that would be historic because unlike the other parties Shen Fan’s core tenant is to reunite the UK’s northern islands with the Republic but it tripped up recently and that’s because immigration has become a top issue for voters as Ireland has seen its largest ever rise in Immigration that’s quite tricky for shimane a leftwing party to capitalize on unlike some other more right-wing populist parties in Europe have been able to do even so the party has seen a steady rise over the last number of years and that’s because it has been able to capitalize on housing crisis that especially impacts younger voters who have no memory of the northern Irish conflicts known as the troubles when shim F was the Poli iCal wing of the IRA or the Irish Republican Army so even though the poll suggests that it could be the same two parties coming back into Power again shinan has risen into a formidable political force and it’s really shaping the political landscape across the islands